H2O: Just Add New Girls Part 3
by Colemet Milinia
Summary: Will and the girls have uncovered Mary and Jessie's secret. But nothing with them came as expected. Will the group find out what's really the mystery? Or will they be left wondering? Part 3/3 NOTE: ONE OF MY FIRST FANFICTIONS. I'm not very happy with it anymore. I'm not really proud of it because it's not that good...
1. Chapter 1

Chap. 1

**Jessie**

Mary finally seriously got to talk to Will, and after she did, she called me the next morning. She explains what went down, tells me what happened. I listen intently as my stomach drops with every word. It drops even further when she mentions that she told Will about me. Luckily, I kept myself from screaming. When she finishes, she tells me to come to her house and bring the crystal from the moon pool. Although slightly confused, I tell her I will and hang up the phone.

I grab my cell phone and bag and prepare to leave. I quickly trot up the stairs, knock on Lee's door and poke my head in. "I'm going out."

She pulls a headphone from one of her ears. "Where to?"

I reluctantly tell her the answer, knowing what she'll say. "Mary's house."

She groans. "Why?"

"Because I can."

She groans again. "Why are you always going over there? And you never say why, like it's some big secret."

I slightly panic internally. I had no idea that LeeAnne even noticed it like that. I still try and make my way out of it. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just going over there to hang out since she's my _friend._"

I can see the pang of jealousy in her eye. She still wishes she were friends with Mary after she had decided to drop her as a friend. But that was her problem, not mine. She rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say," she says sarcastically. "Just don't be home too late."

"Alright," I reply and leave without another word. As I start back down the steps, I think about Lee's last statement telling me not to be home too late. I guess she really does care about me.

As I start out the door, I feel in my pocket for the crystal and find it to be there. I start out for Mary's house and soon find myself in a jog to get there.

As soon as I arrive, I knock on the door and go in. I stop dead, as I expect to see Mary. Instead, I see her, Will, Cleo, Bella, and Rikki. This can't be good, I think.

"What's going on?" I blurt without really thinking.

Mary chuckles. "A lot," she says through a laugh. I walk over to where she's sitting on the couch and sit next to her.

Will, however, gets straight to the point, I guess out of nervousness. "We know you and Mary are mermaids." My eyes widen at that. I can't believe he just said that in front of three people who didn't know I was a mermaid and two non-mermaids. I almost could have strangled him.

"Let me explain," Mary says quickly. I look to her, the slight fury that I'm allowing to show still probably burning in my eye. She started at what probably made me the angriest. "Cleo and Rikki are mermaids, too."

That made me feel a little better. At least when Will blurted it out he was blurting it out to other mermaids. Mary continued. "And they all know about us. When Bella saw me as a mermaid, she consulted it with them and then told Will about it."

"But only to protect each other and you guys," Bella chimes. She looks guilty, probably about telling the others and Will, as we were obviously trying to keep it a secret.

"Right," says Mary. "That's when Will found out about me. After he tried confronting me about it, I decided to trust him when he told me about Bella, but he wasn't handling it well. That's when he went to the café, where he told the girls everything he knew about me being a mermaid and they got wet, while you stood by and watched." I felt myself blush a little.

Mary continued. "After you came here and told me what you saw, Will came back and I confronted him about it. He explained himself and told me that the other two girls were mermaids. That's when I told him you were a mermaid." It's starting to make sense.

"After we both spilled, I told him everything we knew that made us mermaids. And that's when the problems started." Mary finishes.

I gulped. "Problems?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah…" Rikki says. It's the first time I've heard her speak.

"You see, how you two became mermaids is entirely different from the way they became mermaids," Will explains, motioning to the girls. "So we don't know what's happened to you."

I take this all in slowly. My previous relief was gone. I thought that when Will found out we'd start getting answers, especially with Bella in the picture. But now that we're even more of freaks than before, that hope was gone.

Mary interrupts my thoughts. "I explained how we became mermaids to them. The only thing the same for theirs was the moon pool. But what happened to us has happened to them in different ways."

I'm confused now. Cleo sees this. "We all became mermaids in a moon pool under the full moon, but you didn't." I'm surprised at her boldness and openness at telling us what happened. "But we've dealt with things that turned you into mermaids. Like the water tentacle that pulled you into the pool. We've dealt with that for months."

That statement kind of scares me. Bella picks it up next. "And the crystals in the rock," she says. She removes a necklace from her neck. "Just like this." She reaches her arm out and I take the necklace. I study the stone at the end of the string. It's a blue crystal. I remove my crystal from my pocket and compare the two. They're extremely similar.

As I hand Bella her necklace back, Mary starts talking again. "We think it was these crystals that triggered what ever happened in the moon pool." She held her own up to show the rest of the group. "When we put them in the indents in the rock, the place just seemed to come alive," Mary explains.

"Only your two crystals?" says Will. "Because maybe if we can recreate what happened in the cave on Mako Island, we can figure out how you became mermaids."

That sounded like a good plan to me. But Mary interjected. "There's only one problem with that plan."

It sounded fine. "What's the problem?"

"Anna has the other crystal."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi readers! Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it! And thank you so much for your wonderful reviews, they mean the world to me as a writer and they're just such a blessing! Thank you guys! :D**

* * *

Chap. 2

**Mary**

I walked in to school the next morning with my book bag and determination. After the conversation us mermaids and Will had yesterday, I had to get that crystal back from Anna. It was the only way to find out more about what's happened to us.

I quickly ran up the staircase, went to my locker and then went to Jessie's. We needed to talk and formulate a plan if we're going to get this crystal.

I walked up behind her. "Hey," I say anxiously. "We need to talk."

"No doubt," she replies quietly. Jessie glances over her shoulder. I look too, as to see her glance fall upon Anna at her own locker putting in books.

"How are we going to do this without any suspicion?" I ask her, still looking at Anna.

"It'll be hard," Jessie comments. "We have to get around her, and then we still have Lee to deal with…"

I stop and turn to her. "What?" I ask, louder than I intend.

Jessie explains without taking her eyes off Anna. "LeeAnne's been suspicious lately because I've been at your house so much. Not a big deal."

"If you say so," I reply skeptically. I turn my attention back to Anna. "Now's our chance," I say. "Should we just go for it?"

"I don't really see a way to formulate a plan otherwise…" Jessie agrees. She slams her locker. "Let's go."

We slowly walk over to Anna's locker. "Hey, Anna," I greet her.

She looks up at us and smiles. "Oh, hey guys. What's up?" She returns her attention to her locker.

Jessie goes next. "Uh, yeah, we were just wondering…" she pauses as Anna looks back up at us curiously. "Remember that day we spent on Mako Island?"

She really perks up now. She nods her head slowly.

"Remember those crystals we found after that…" I can tell she doesn't want to refer to it. "Weird thing happened?"

Another nod. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the very crystal. "This one?" she asks a little shakily.

"Yeah, that one," I reply quickly.

"What about it?" Anna asks, still holding it up.

"Could we… possibly… get it back?" Jessie asks slowly.

There's a hesitation. Anna finally narrows her eyes in suspicion. "Why?"

"Uh, just… no reason," Jessie tries to mend. Uh-oh. "We just… uh…"

"Does this have anything to do with Mako Island?" she asks us suspiciously. "You seem to have been affiliated with that place lately." As she questions us, she puts the crystal in a small pocket that's part of her backpack.

We're getting nervous now. Jessie still keeps it going while I formulate in my head. "I don't know what you're talking about, really."

"Yes, you do," Anna counters. "You were there just the other day."

I make a snap decision. "Can I use your locker mirror really fast?" She briefly pays attention and nods, quickly turning her attention back to Jessie. As I look in the mirror, I listen to them go on.

"What were you doing there?" She's just about interrogating now.

I can tell Jessie's at a loss for words. "I… we weren't doing…"

"And there you go again!" Anna exclaims. I'm still standing behind her as all of this happens.

"There I go what?" retorts Jessie.

"Being all secretive!" She's almost yelling now. "You've just been sneaking around and staying so reserved and… I don't know!"

I can tell she's mad. I walk back around to the front of her to see her face is red with anger. Jessie tries again. "Look, Anna, I…"

Anna puts her hand up. "Save it," she says. "I'm keeping that crystal until you tell me what's going on." She slams her locker and walks away.

Me and Jessie turn to each other as we watch Anna angrily storm off. Jessie speaks. "Well, THAT went horribly. Now she's suspicious and we didn't even get the crystal."

"Didn't we?" I smile as I go in my pocket and remove the crystal to show it to Jessie. I let it sit in the palm of my hand. I realize I've been silent almost the entire time. But I've been busy.

Jessie's eyes widen at the sight of the glassy blue stone in my hand. She stutters, trying to formulate words through her shock. "How did you…"

I grin at her. "Let's just say I'm the best pick pocket ever."

…

**Will**

I'm already home when Mary comes home after school with Jessie. I've been wondering all day about how it went with getting the crystal. What I was even more worried about is what would happen when we actually got them.

"Hey," Mary calls to me as she comes inside.

I get out of my seat and walk up to her. "Hey. How did it go today?" I ask hopefully.

She holds out her hand. Lying in her palm is the blue crystal. We both smile at the same time. "We got it!" she exclaims.

"That's great!" I say. I take the crystal and study it for a minute. I roll it back and forth in my hand. "So this is what turned you guys into mermaids…" I mumble.

Suddenly, I want to smash the crystal. This little rock is what turned my sister into a mermaid, giving her difficulty, giving her danger. This little tiny thing is the reason I freaked out, the reason I need to protect her.

I resist my urge to throw it on the ground and watch it shatter, shake off my thoughts, and look back up at the girls. Jessie's giving Mary a disapproving look. I frown. "What?"

Mary sighs and looks guilty. Jessie begins to explain. "When we tried to get it from Anna this morning, things got worse," she starts. I feel my stomach drop. "She got really suspicious and she wouldn't give us the crystal."

I'm confused now. "Then how'd you get the crystal?" I ask.

Jessie looks over at Mary again and gives her a disapproving head shake. Mary looks really guilty now. Jessie turns her attention back to me. "Let's just say Mary is an excellent pick pocket."

My eyes widen and go to Mary. "You pick pocketed this crystal off of her?"

"We had to get it!" she defends.

"But you just totally made it worse! Now she's even _more _suspicious and she's going to flip when she sees the crystal missing!" I scold her.

"She specifically said that she wouldn't give us the crystal unless we told her what's going on! It was either tell her we're mermaids and get the crystal back by her giving it to us or have her be angry and suspicious while I take the crystal back! What other choice did I have?" Mary yells.

I sigh loudly, close my eyes, and run my fingers through my hair. "Mary…"

"Look, we have the crystal. That's all that matters. We'll make amends with Anna later and put her off the trail. We just need to focus on this right now," Mary says, obviously trying to calm my nerves.

"Alright," I say. She's right. What other option do we have? I point my finger at her. "Pick pocketing is wrong," I say.

Mary chuckles. "I know. But this called for extreme measures." I laugh too.

"Aww," Jessie finally speaks and she's smiling. "Hug it out you two!"

We all laugh as me and Mary join in a hug. I hold onto her, dreading the moment I have to let go, because when I do, I know I can't protect her anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

Chap. 3

**Anna**

I storm home that afternoon, angry at the conversation I had with Jessie earlier. I get in my house and slammed the door, happy to be alone. I trudge over to the couch and sink on to it, dropping my bag by my feet.

I cross my arms angrily and tried to think it over. Why would Mary and Jessie want that crystal? Whatever they want with it, it's some big secret. And it has something to do with Mako Island. It has something to do with that strange pool.

I recapped in my head everything that happened. It all started with those crystals in the wall, and then that weird thing happened in the pool to Mary and Jessie. The blue light, the water tentacle pulling them in, and everything after.

As I thought about it, it all started coming together in my head. That's why they wanted the crystals! To recreate what happened on Mako! But just one question; why?

Whatever had happened was freaky, something unusual. Why would they want to recreate it? What was the significance? It didn't make sense. _That _was the part I needed to figure out.

I quickly bent down and unzipped a pocket on my book bag to get out my crystal. I couldn't let them get their hands on it. I rummaged my hand in the pocket for a minute, but my hand didn't feel it. I finally looked inside the pocket to see if I could see the small stone. But it wasn't in there.

I looked again. Two, three, four times, but it was no use. It was gone. I screamed at the top of my lungs at this and flung a pillow across the room. How could I have let this happen? More importantly, how did it even happen? I tried to think about how, but nothing came. Whatever it was, this couldn't be a coincidence. Mary or Jessie had to have the crystal.

This just keeps getting worse. But I knew what I had to do.

I had to get to Mako Island.

…

**Mary**

Once again, Jessie and I returned to my house the next day after school. Things were getting worse, it seemed. LeeAnne had barely let Jessie go without an explanation and Anna wouldn't so much as look at us, let alone speak to us. We still had yet to go about figuring out what happened to us when we became mermaids with the crystals.

When Jessie and I get in, we see that Will, Bella, Cleo, and Rikki are already here. We're both a little confused since no one really told us about this.

"Uh, what's going on?" I ask uneasily.

They all seem to glance at one another before answering. Will turns to me uncertainly. "Mary, how much do you and Jessie really know about you being mermaids?"

I think for a second. "Now that I think about it, not much." I turn to Jessie. She shakes her head.

Will turns back to the other girls for a second and all shoot glances again. Then, suddenly, without warning, Will turns and throws a cup of water on my, soaking my legs and entire front. Luckily, Jessie jumps back just in time.

"What the heck, Will?" I yell. I transform and fall to the ground with my tail. Will comes over and crouches down next to me.

"Well, you change after ten seconds like they do," he says, observing the obvious fact that I've now changed into a mermaid.

"We knew that!" I say, exasperated. "We could've told you that much!"

Will studies me, looking me up and down. He looks closely at the part where the scales meld into my skin. He looks for some hint of difference in what he apparently knows. He finally confirms something. "You look exactly the same as they do."

I roll my eyes. We're getting nowhere by just having Will look at me. "I thought you said you weren't going to turn us into a science experiment."

"You're not a science experiment," he replies. "You're just…" He doesn't know how to complete that sentence without it sounding bad. "Whatever, let's just focus."

He slips his arms beneath my body and lifts me from the floor. He carefully brings me over and sets me on the couch. He crouches down next to me once more. Bella starts talking. "Will, we're not going to get anywhere with this if we just look at her. We need to actually do something." I don't know if she helped or made it worse.

Will's face suddenly lights up, as if he gets an idea. He turns to me. "Close your eyes."

Although I probably should, I don't question and shut my eyes. Nothing happens for a moment, but then I briefly here Jessie cry "No-" But it's too late. I already feel the sharp pain in my tail.

"OW!" I squeal as I open my eyes. I open them to see Will still in front of me, but in between his fingers is one of my scales. My eyes widen. "Absolutely not!" I say as I lash my arm out to grab it. He pulls it back just out of my reach.

"Mary," Will says calmly."We _have _to do this. How else are we going to figure this all out?"

"I don't know, but _not _by having our DNA around loosely!" I scold.

"Mary's right," Jessie chimes in. "That's too risky."

"We won't take it anywhere we'll just keep it here," Will assures them he stands up and goes over to put the scale on his desk. "What's the worst that could happen?" Will says it, but none of us really want to think about what that would be.

"So at least we won't end up dissected here," I assure Jessie from my spot on the couch.

"Maybe," Will says with a smirk.

Suddenly, Jessie bursts out of know where. I suppose it was from her being quiet, she looked like she had been thinking. She radically pointed to the other three mermaids in the room. "I saw you all!" she bursts. We all must look confused because she explains. "I was swimming into the moon pool one day while you three were there. I quickly hid away when I saw you all there, but then I forgot you were mermaids!"

I laugh for a second. "How did you forget that?" I ask.

She laughs in return. "I don't know," she replies. "But that's why I freaked out when they found out about us and I re-found out about them, I guess."

Suddenly, Rikki speaks up. The mermaids have been quiet most of this time, but she finally decides to talk. "What about their powers?"

"Powers?" we ask in unison.

"I forgot," Will said. He carefully takes another cup of water and walks towards Jessie. She instinctively takes a step back, but Will takes her by the shoulder to keep her there. "Jessie, try to move this water."

"Huh?" she says unbelievingly.

"Try to move this water," he repeats. He demonstrates the motion with his hand.

Jessie seems to focus. She does what Will did with his hand and stares at the glass. Suddenly, the water starts to rise into the air as a column. It shocks Jessie so much the she jolts her hand back, causing all of the water to splash onto her, turning her into a mermaid. She falls to the ground.

"Perfect," Will says. Jessie gives him a look. He tries something else. "Now try and heat the water," he tells her, once again demonstrating the motion. Jessie does as Will instructs and, as expected, water starts to steam off of her tail, evaporating into steamy vapor in the air.

"Ok," Will says. He brings over yet another cup of water even though we're in complete shock as it is. Even the other mermaids look a bit shocked. "Now try and turn this into gel," Will says, going through the motions. Jessie does this, and the water turns into jelly. "Now try changing it back." Jessie does it again and it happens.

"Ok, one more," Will says. He motions it. "Now freeze it." Jessie does.

By this time, we're all in complete shock. It's awesome. Can I do that?" I ask anxiously. Will instructs me on trying everything Jessie did. I can do them all as well.

"Wow," Jessie says breathlessly. "That's incredible."

I turn to the others. "Can you do all that?"

"Yeah," Cleo explains, still in shock. "But we can each only do one."

I'm confused. "What do you mean?"

Rikki explains. "I can heat water, Bella can turn it into jelly, Cleo can move water, and another mermaid we know can freeze water. We can each only do one." Bella and Cleo nod in verification.

"There's something different," Will says.

"No doubt," Bella agrees.

"So we have… superpowers?" Jessie asks.

We all kind of laugh. "Yup."

"Well then," Will says. "Then we have work to do."


	4. Chapter 4

Chap. 4

**Bella**

I torpedoed through the water towards Mako Island, clutching a small blue crystal in my hand. Cleo and Rikki were swimming just beside me, also clutching crystals. We quickly arrived at the underwater cave for the moon pool. We all slowed down and swiftly swam our way in.

One by one, we all emerged over the surface. When we all were up, I looked to each of them. "Got it?" I asked, referring to the crystals. They both brought their hand above the water, revealing the small blue stone in each of their hands, plus mine, making three in all. "Good," I confirmed.

We all flopped our tails over the side of the moon pool and let Rikki steam dry our tails one by one. As soon as the three of us got our legs again, we stood up and began looking around.

"So, what exactly does Will want us to do?" asks Rikki as she looked at stones around the pool.

"I'm not exactly sure," I reply. "He wasn't to clear with specific instructions. He just said take these crystals to Mako Island and see what we can find."

We all looked around for another couple minutes, but we didn't find anything too out of the ordinary. "It all looks fine to me," Rikki comments.

"Will said something about a rock in the wall where the crystals go," I said, studying yet another side of the cavern. "Do you see anything?"

"No…" Rikki says. She opens up her hand and looks at the crystal. "The crystals look just like ours."

"I know," I say "It's kind of…"

"Uh, guys," Cleo finally speaks. She's been quiet this entire time. Rikki and I turn around to look at what she's talking about. She's pointing at the wall furthest back. I squint at it and finally realize what she's specifically pointing at.

As I walk closer, I see that there's an abnormally shaped rock sticking out from the wall. It blends with the rest, but sticks out furthest of them all. On the top of it, there are three diamond shaped indents.

"Think that has anything to do with it?" Cleo asks as Rikki walks up to join us.

"I'd say a good possibility," I reply.

I look up at my two friends and we all nod. Slowly, we each take the crystal enclosed in our hand and put them in the matching indents. I'm last. As Cleo places her crystal, I look up at them. "Are we ready?" I ask. They both nod. We brace ourselves as I carefully place my last crystal in to the indent.

At first, nothing happens, but we're all holding our breath. I start to think that the crystals will only work with the other girls or we didn't do it right, but suddenly, the whole cave seems to come alive.

We suddenly begin to relive everything Mary and Jessie described to us. A blue glow falls over the entire pool, consuming it in a full, never ending glow. A wind blows through the cave, whipping our hair and ponytails across our faces.

"What's going on?" Rikki yells over the pandemonium. "This hasn't happened before!"

"That's because we've never _seen _it before!" screams Cleo in reply. Everything's happening so fast.

Then the water tentacle comes.

…

**Rikki**

We all stand in the cave of the moon pool, trying to stand our ground with the strong wind blowing through our every limb.

"What's going on?" I yell to the others. This isn't right. "This hasn't happened before!"

"That's because we've never seen it before!" screams Cleo.

I look over at Bella. She's just shaking her head.

I glance at the moon pool. It's starting to bubble and a light fills it, almost like the moon light. I get down on my hands and knees and crawl towards the edge of the pool.

"What are you doing?" screams Cleo.

"Rikki, get back!" Bella shouts at me. I don't listen to either of them.

Instead, I stay by the bank and try and look up the cone of the volcano. It's too bright to really see, but I can just make out a faint circle shape at the top of the cone.

My eyes fall back down to the pool. I'm suddenly filled with terror as the water in the pool begins to rise into an all too familiar column. I quickly stumble back farther away from the edge of the pool. The tentacle keeps growing until…

I know its ways all too well. It's about to take me.

Just as it begins to poise itself for attack, I yell. "Quick! Pull out the crystals! PULL THEM OUT!" I scream at the top of my lungs. Bella and Cleo quickly abide, each yanking a crystal out of its indent.

As soon as they do, the entire cave stops. It goes to sleep. It dies.

All three of us are breathing heavily. I'm still on the ground.

"That… was… weird…" Cleo manages through her short, quick breaths.

"That wasn't… normal…" I say.

Bella finally regains her breath. "Come on," she says. "We really need to get back." Without another word, Bella swiftly dives into the previously dangerous moon pool and swims away.

Cleo and I look at each other. I silently go over to the abnormal rock and retrieve my crystal. Cleo already has hers clenched in her hand and Bella took hers with her.

We're both slightly confused by our friend's behavior, but we finally dive and follow her without question.

…

**Cleo**

We quickly make our way back to shore and soon find ourselves at Will's boat house. Bella, who was probably a minute or two ahead of us, is already there waiting with Will.

"What'd you guys find out?" he asks anxiously. "Bella isn't saying anything."

Me and Rikki both shoot a peculiar glance at Bella, but she won't meet our gaze. She's just sitting silently.

I open up my hand and show Will the crystal. "These crystals," I explain. "are super powerful."

I begin to recount what happened during our trip to Mako to Will. He nods, having this all be familiar to him. Up until I pass it to Rikki.

She begins to explain what she did. "I saw the moon pool bubbling, so I got down on my hands and knees and… I crawled toward the edge… then the water tentacle…" She tries explaining.

Will's eyes widen. "You went up to the moon pool right when the water tentacle started to come?" Rikki nods slightly. He scolds her. "Rikki! Don't you know how dangerous that is?"

"Well, we weren't learning anything we didn't already know from where we were standing!" she counters. I know she's right, but neither I nor Bella were brave enough to approach it. Bella was just about frozen stiff. We should be glad that you did. Rikki starts off again. "Do you want answers for your little sister or not?"

Will sighs and rubs his eyes. "Alright," he says. "Go on."

"Right," Rikki continues. "When I approached the moon pool _before _the water tentacle was there, I looked up into the volcano. In the sky, it was a bright light. There was the shape of a circle, too."

Will looked confused. "I'm not…"

"It was almost like…" I boost on for her.

"Almost like… a synthetic moon, or something…" Rikki states.

"A synthetic moon?" Will repeats.

"Yes," Rikki says. "And it definitely had something to do with the transformation of your sister and her friend."

Will sits and takes this all in, staring blankly. "It… I…" He tries to form words, but it's no use.

I glance over at Bella. She's been quiet this entire time. "Bella? I ask. He doesn't break her gaze from the ground. "Are you ok? Your face… it looks a little… familiar…"

"Because it is," she says quietly.

"What?" Rikki asks. Will looks up, too. We're all looking at her now.

"I've seen this before," she says. "Back in Ireland."


	5. Chapter 5

Chap. 5

**Will**

My eyes widen as I stare at Bella. Everything that we've been researching, trying to find out, what we've been trying to learn, she knew all along. Why didn't she say anything?

"You… what?" I ask, not really able to process it all in my mind exactly.

"I've seen this in Ireland before," she repeats.

Now I'm angry. "You've seen this before and didn't bother to say anything?"

Bella throws up her hands and looks at me defensively. "I didn't know what it was! I had an idea from what you'd told me and research, but seeing it for myself… Now I know."

"That's how _you _became a mermaid?" Rikki asks. I can see why she's wondering; I could have sworn Bella had told us she'd been transformed by the moon…

"No," Bella says, confirming our thoughts. She quiets her voice a little. "It almost took my powers away."

I feel my stomach drop. Cleo lets out a barely-audible gasp. "Wha…" Cleo stutters. "... what happened?"

Bella begins to explain. "Back when I lived in Ireland, I found almost the exact same thing that we have here." She fingers the blue crystal around her neck. "That's where I got this. There was the rock with the indents and everything…"

Rikki and Cleo are leaning forward in their seats, listening tentatively as I am. Bella continues. "One day, I just found these crystals and the rock… I was really curious, so I had to try it. I put the crystals in the indents and the whole cave came alive."

Bella's face is far off, like she's remembering. None of us dare interrupt her or say a word. "After it all came and started… the water tentacle happened. It… it pulled me into the pool… and then while I was in the water… I wasn't a mermaid."

Her story is capturing me as she tells it and I'm realizing the scary reality it really is as she goes. She goes on. "When I realized that I still had my legs in the water as everything went on, I screamed. I was so scared. Finally, my tail reappeared. I was so relieved. But then it happened again." Her story was starting to confuse me, but I don't say anything and let her keep talking.

I can tell by her face that the whole thing was a hard experience for her. She shutters as she starts again. "It just kept happening, going back and forth, tail and no tail. I didn't know what to do… I was afraid I would lose my powers forever…" She hesitates and composes herself. "I… I finally decided I needed to get out of the water… I waited until I had my tail again and just pulled myself out."

The look on her face shows the whole flash back replaying in her mind. We all remain silent in her own silence. She finally begins speaking again. "When I got out, I quickly dragged myself over to the other side of the cave where the rock with the crystals was. I stretched myself to the rock quickly pulled out a crystal from the indent." Bella fingers her necklace again. "It was this one. I passed out after that with the crystal in my hand… I.. I keep it because I realized that… it… it saved my powers." She quiets her voice again. "I was only thirteen when it happened," she finishes.

I see a tear roll down her cheek as I pull her in to a hug. I gently put my arms around her as she sniffles. I stroke her hair lightly. "It's ok, Bella," I try to soothe her.

I can't imagine what she went through. Almost losing something as amazing as she has would be terrible. I can't even come close to imagining what she feels at the traumatic memory. She finally composes herself, lets go of me, and turns up to face me. "Whatever force those crystals bring about is powerful, not to mention dangerous. We don't know enough about it to come to any conclusions of what it can really do."

"We only know it can give mermaid powers and take it away, to be basic, at the least," says Cleo.

"The real question is how," I comment. "And what else it can do."

"But how are we ever going to find that out?" says Rikki.

Suddenly, Mary and Jessie walk through the door. I glance at them and then back at the girls.

"With them."

…

**Jessie **

As Mary and I walk into her boat house, we see Will, Bella, Cleo, and Rikki all already there. Will gives us a glance then looks back at his friends. All he says is, "With them."

I narrow my eyes. Whatever he means by that statement, it makes the girls' eyes widen.

"No way, Will," Bella says immediately. "It's too risky. We don't know what this can really do."

"Then how are we going to find out if we don't do anything about it?" he counters.

Mary cuts in abruptly. "What's going on?" she asks.

We each take a seat as Will recounts what has happened while we were gone. He explains a lot about what Bella recounted to them and what that truly brings us to at this point. "And now taking what Bella knows," he says towards the end of the explanation. "We really don't know what we're dealing with."

I try and take this all in. "Ok, let's just recap what we know," I suggest.

"Good idea," Cleo says. She starts with the basics. "Bella, Rikki and I all became mermaids in the moon pool during a full moon. We each have one power over water and are affected by the full moon." It's a good start.

Mary goes next. "Jessie and I became mermaids in the moon pool when crystals in a rock caused an extreme reaction from the moon pool. We each have four powers over water. We… don't really know if the moon does anything to us, I guess…"

Bella goes on. "When I was thirteen, the same force that turned you two in to mermaids almost took my powers away."

Will goes on, too. "We know that whatever force happened in each of the moon pools were caused by those blue crystals. And we know it can give and take away mermaid powers."

I finally conclude something of my own. "Whatever force is behind the crystal occurrences in the moon pool, it's more powerful than the full moon itself."

Everyone looks at me from this conclusion as they realize it's right. Rikki finally finishes. "And we have no idea _what _else that force can do and _how _else it can affect mermaids."

That all pretty much sums up what we know. We all sit there, trying to put the pieces all together in our head, but we don't have enough of them to complete the puzzle. I finally speak.

"In that case… Will's right," I say. "We _do _need to figure out how this works before the worst of the unexpected happens."

Mary nods in agreement. "We can't avoid it forever. If we do, it's really going to get worse later and then we won't know what to do." Will and the girls all slowly nod in agreement.

"Ok," Will finally says. "Then we've got to go to Mako Island."


	6. Chapter 6

Chap. 6

**Mary**

After collectively deciding that we needed to do more research on the whole situation after finding out more, Will went straight to work. He studied the crystals, calendars, maps, and the cell sample from my tail. I didn't exactly know what he was looking for, but he seemed determined with whatever it was.

He put me through all sorts of tests, testing my powers, my swimming abilities, and a thousand other things. Sometimes he would just throw water on me randomly to see what would happen.

Will comes up to me now, looking anxious, as if to tell me something. He opens his mouth to say something then quickly shuts it again, apparently deciding against it. Instead, he takes the glass of water beside him and splashes it on me.

I transform and fall to the floor. "Will!" I say, rather irritated.

"Sorry," he says, distracted by some sort of paper in his hand. He comes over and bends down next to me on the floor. He looks me up and down, studying my tail, looking for something out of the ordinary.

"What is it this time?" I ask warily.

He glances at the paper in his hand. "I've been studying the moon cycles… And I wanted to test a theory."

"Is that all?" I ask. He nods. "What was the theory?"

"That you wouldn't change," he replies. I'm confused. Why wouldn't I change like usual? It must show on my face because Will explains. "Tonight's a new moon."

"A new moon?" I ask, still confused. "I thought we were trying to focus on the _full _moon."

"Exactly," Will goes on. "And that just might be the problem. What if it's _not _the full moon?"

I think on that. He may have a point, but it still didn't make sense. "It wasn't even night time when the moon pool transformed us," I explain to Will. "How could the moon even be involved? What if it's not?"

"I don't know if it's the moon itself…" he says uncertainly. "But I think it has something to do with the lunar cycle."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I'm not sure yet…" he says "But that's what we need to find out."

With what he's explaining to me, I think he's definitely on to something. He's probably right. But what could it really mean? "So what are you suggesting?"

"I say we go to Mako Island," he says. "Tonight?"

"Tonight?" I repeat in disbelief. "Why tonight?"

"Like I said, it's a new moon," he tells me. "If I'm right, then this part of the lunar cycle has something to do with your transformation. But we need to find out what."

I hesitate, but I eventually nod in agreement. "Ok."

I go and call Jessie to tell her the plan, she agrees and says she'll come while Will calls the other girls.

The next thing we know, we're on our way to Mako Island, preparing to uncover the mysteries of our secrets.

…

**Jessie**

I get Mary's call and she explains to me what Will suggested. She says that we need to go to Mako Island tonight. I agree, but I know it's going to be hard getting past Lee, especially tonight when our parents aren't here. I uneasily confirm it for Mary and tell her I'll be there as soon as possible.

I hang up the phone and walk down the hallway to LeeAnne's bedroom. Without even thinking, I knock o her door, clueless on what to say. She says "Come in," and I crack the door enough to put my head in.

"I'm going over to Mary's house," I tell her. It's not a question.

"Why?" she questions, looking up from her magazine. I figured she would.

"Homework," I immediately say in reply. I'm surprised that it actually came out.

She narrows her eyes at me skeptically. "Whatever," she says reluctantly.

As I leave, I give a mental sigh of relief. I'm not helping myself with her suspicions by being at Mary's all the time, but what else am I supposed to do? We have to figure this out. I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I quickly went to Mary's, and next thing I knew, I was torpedo swimming through the water with Mary, a crystal clenched in my hand with Bella, Cleo, and Rikki trailing a little behind us.

We all arrived at the moon pool and came to the surface. When we came up, we found Will already there.

"So what exactly do you want us to do?" I inquire.

He glances at the five of us in the pool. "First, all of you need to get out of the water." We abide to Will's instruction and pull our bodies out of the water. Mary and I steam dry ourselves, as well as Rikki. Cleo simply lifts the water off her tail and Bella gels the water on hers. Soon, we've all regained our legs and are waiting on Will's next instruction.

"Ok," he starts. "We need to cause the pool to come alive like it has before with the crystals to see what happens. One of you has to be there for what happens."

I put my hand halfway up. "I'll do it," I volunteer. I know Will won't want Jessie doing it, and I'll just save the other girls the trouble.

"Are you sure, Jessie?" asks Mary with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I say. I'm not, but I try to make it seem like I am.

Mary puts the second crystal in my hand and Will gives me the third. He nods. "Are you ready?" he asks.

"I'm ready," I confirm, even though I'm not. Will, Mary, Bella, Cleo, and Rikki all stand back by the opening to the other part of the cave. I slowly walk towards the rock with the indents and put the crystals in one by one.

As usual, the cave comes alive. The expected happens, the blue glow consumes the cave, the wind blows, and the pool starts bubbling. I gulp at it all and pray for the best.

Before long, the water tentacle makes its appearance. I watch it slowly grow then quickly squeeze my eyes shut and brace myself for when it grabs me, as expected, it does.

I splash into the water in the clutches of the tentacle. I hear a gasp come from the opening where the others are waiting and watching. I look over, but as I do, I realize something.

I don't have my tail.

Mary notices this too and screams. She tries to come towards me but Will holds her back. I'm terrified, but I don't let it show. But before I know it, my tail comes back.

But then it goes away. This seems familiar, but to…

"Jessie, quick!" I hear Bella scream. "When your tail comes back, get out of the water!"

I don't hesitate to obey. My tail reappears and I pull myself out of the water as fast as I can. When I'm out, Will runs over to the rock and yanks out a crystal. Everything goes dead.

Mary runs over next to me. "Are you ok?" she asks frantically.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I tell her just a little shaken up.

Bella approaches us, too. "That's exactly what happened to me," she says.

I nod. We're all silent for a moment, thinking it through. Finally, Cleo speaks up. "Will, didn't you say tonight was a new moon?"

"Yeah," Will confirms.

"We got our tails from the full moon…" Rikki says, motioning to her, Bella, and Cleo. "So full moon equals tail…" I complete her thought because I'm thinking the same one.

"But no moon…" I say, referring to the new moon. "Equals no tail."


	7. Chapter 7

Chap. 7

**Will**

After we had made this new revelation in our research, we all went back home. By the time we had arrived back at our boat house, I was pacing and thinking like crazy.

Mary leaned up against the desk and crossed her arms. "Ok," she began as everyone else came inside. "Where do we go from here?"

"Further," I say quickly.

"Thank for that," she said sarcastically. "But what do we actually do?"

Bella was next to speak up. "We have to work with the moon. I mean, its cycles are what causing this, right?"

"Right," said Jessie unevenly. She still seemed a little shaken up about what happened to her on Mako. I stopped pacing for a moment and patted her shoulder in comfort and reassurance. She gave me a weak smile and I started pacing again.

"But what do we really know?" Cleo interjected. "We know that those crystals cause reactions with the moon, the new moon. But what do we really know about the rest?" I opened my fingers and glanced at the crystal in my hand. "We only know that much. How we became mermaids is completely different. For all we know, they might not be related at all."

"No, they _have _to be related," I disagreed with her. "They're too close to not be. The moon pool, the crystals, and the moon itself. It all has to be related somehow."

"Maybe…" Cleo humored me uncertainly. I knew she still was thinking otherwise.

Rikki finally spoke up. When I looked up at her, she had a curious expression on her face. "When exactly did you guys become mermaids?" she asked.

"About a month and a half ago," Jessie answered.

"I know, but what _day?_" Rikki elaborated.

Mary thought in her head as she traced back the days. She finally answered, "The eleventh."

I stopped pacing. The eleventh. I quickly went over to my desk and grabbed one of the calenders. I looked back at the previous month. I glanced back up at everyone. "The eleventh was a full moon," I say slowly.

Everyone's eyes nearly pop out of their head. Mary lightens the mood and chuckles. "Well what are the odds, huh?" Everyone laughs a little at that.

"So, the crystal reaction turned you both into mermaids on the night of a full moon?" Bella asked, trying to clear things up.

"Yup," Mary confirms. "And it tried to take them away on a new moon."

"So…" Jessie wonders. There's a pause. "…what would it do to use the other significant days of the lunar cycle?"

We all consider this. It's a good question. "I don't know…" I finally comment. "But we need to find out."

Mary groans. "Ughh… more science experiments!" she complains sarcastically.

I smirk and playfully punch her in the arm. "Oh, stop complaining," I laugh. "It could be worse."

The others laugh. Through her giggles, Bella speaks up. "He's right," she says. "But in all seriousness, Will's right. We need to figure this out. If we don't, we could put us all in danger. And that's the last thing we need now."

"No kidding…" mumbles Jessie.

Uh oh. I narrow my eyes at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she tries. "It's just…"

"Just Lee and Anna," finishes Mary. "They're starting to get suspicious. _Really _suspicious."

I gulp. "Wh-what do you mean?" I stutter.

"Lee's been suspicious about me being here all the time, but she doesn't have a clue what's going on. She's accused me of acting strange and what not… It's nothing, though…" I cut her off.

"We can't take any risks," I say seriously. "Maybe you should stay back for a few days until her suspicions are suppressed…"

"No, I can't!" she protests. "I need to know these things just as much as the rest of you, I can't miss out."

"Mary could fill you in," I suggest. Her look tells me she's not going to budge. "At least think about it," I say. She shrugs. I turn to Mary. "What about Anna?"

Mary shrugs too. "After we asked her about the crystal, her suspicions just spiked through the work. I don't think she's about to let it go. She vowed not to let us have it until we told her what's going on. She hasn't talked to us since then. She has to have noticed it's gone by now." She sighs. "Not to mention she _saw _what happened to us…"

I forgot that fact and bite my lip. This isn't good. I sigh and can't believe what I'm about to say. "Maybe… maybe you should tell her."

"No," Mary says almost instantly. "That _isn't _an option right now. Too risky."

"Mary's right," Jessie agrees. "We don't know if we can trust her, especially with the way she's acting now. We can't."

I sigh. "Alright," I surrender. "Just be careful, then."

"We will," Mary says instantly. "We can handle this, Will." I nod solemnly. I know they can.

Jessie looks at her watch. " I have to get home," she tells us. "It's getting late, and I have to finish some homework."

"Alright," Mary says. "I'll walk you to the door."

As they go out the door, I turn to Bella. "We have a lot to do."

…

**Lee**

I'm down stairs in the kitchen getting something to eat when I hear the front door open. "Hey," I hear Jessie's voice call as she arrives home.

I walk out to see her and cross my arms. "Where have you been?" I ask accusingly.

"I told you, I was at Mary's house studying," she dismisses.

I narrow my eyes. "You said you were doing homework."

She rolls her eyes. "Same thing," she says.

"You've been over there quite a lot lately. Why?" I wait for an explanation.

"Are we really going through this again?" She picks up a magazine and sits on the couch. "Lee, I told you, Mary's my friend. Why can't I hang out with her?"

I groan. "You're so annoying," I say rolling my eyes.

She looks at me in exasperation. "What's your problem? Do you really have a problem with me hanging out with my friend?"

"No!" I say, although it does kind of bug me that she's been spending so much time with Mary since we're not friends anymore. "But I feel like there's something you're not saying about it."

"You're crazy, LeeAnne," she tells me. "Just forget it, it's nothing."

I just storm off. "Whatever…" I mumble under my breath.


	8. Chapter 8

Chap. 8

**Anna**

After several days of ignoring Mary and Jessie, I begin to question my decision. I feel like I was being a total jerk to them when they asked for the crystal and accusing them of something that might just be far from true. Maybe them wanting the crystal was just harmless. Even though I feel bad, I still don't know.

I try to think of everything I know about it. I think up everything, the crystals, the weird island episode, and Mary and Jessie's strange behavior. It didn't add up to anything out of the ordinary, maybe they were just a little shaken up. Or maybe not.

I couldn't add it all up in a way that made it seem out of the ordinary. I was probably insane. _Nothing _was going on. Although I kept telling myself that, I couldn't quite convince myself. Despite that, I decide I need to apologize to Mary and Jessie.

I close my locker and glance across the hall. Yes, there they are, standing in front of Mary's locker, just talking. I prepare myself for what's to come. I need to apologize, but I shouldn't really expect them to forgive me. I just lashed out and started to completely ignore them. But I had to anyway.

I prepared to walk up and apologize, but their conversation caught my attention instead and I stopped.

"What do you think?" Mary asks Jessie quietly.

"I don't know," Jessie replies. "But _something _has to happen. It can't just be dormant, really, can it?"

"Maybe, but it's unlikely. It doesn't seem like something Mako would do," Mary responds.

My eyes widen, but I stay where I am. Mako? It can't be. It's not possible.

"Yeah…" Jessie agrees. "So what does this mean?" By their faces, I can tell they're thinking the same thing.

"We have to go," Mary confirms and says their obvious mutual thought out loud. "We have to test it. We don't have a choice." Jessie sighs.

I don't need to hear any more. I quickly turn and walk in the other direction unnoticed.

I can't believe it. I was right. I _knew _something was going on. And whatever I just heard, it confirmed my suspicions. Something was going on, and I need to find out what. And I know exactly where to start, just like before.

Mako Island.

…

**Mary**

I come home after school by myself. I finally convinced Jessie to stay back, at least for the day, in order to suppress Lee's suspicions. We can't take any risks at this point, especially with Anna on our case as well. When I walk in, I see Will and Bella already here.

"Hey," I greet them both as I put down my bag. They're looking over something on Will's desk. I become curious. "Whatcha looking at?"

"The crystals," Will answers. I walk over and peer over their shoulders. There are two crystals on the desk, one of ours from the moon pool and the one from Bella's necklace. Will's laptop is also open.

"After comparing my crystal and yours, we were able to obviously confirm they're the same type of crystal," Bella explains. "Now we're just trying to find out _what _it is."

"And we can't find anything on it," Will says, sounding a little bit frustrated. He types something into his computer.

"Nothing?" I ask in disbelief. "There's _nothing _at _all?_"

"Not that I can find," Will replies. "I've looked up just about _every _blue crystal known to man and nothing matches its description or properties."

"Have you even found anything close?" I ask. I take control of the computer and scroll through the history.

"Not really," Will says. He turns his attention back to the crystals and studies them closely.

"The closest thing we found is this," Bella tells me. She scrolls on the computer and clicks one of the history links. "This website calls the blue stone Pizite." She points to the picture of the blue crystal on the screen. It's very similar looking to our crystals, too. "They say it's an extremely rare stone that is a sea blue color with a glassy quality and is very strong. Not much is known about it, but they've found ancient writings that seem to describe its properties as 'magical.'"

"How appropriate," I comment, scrolling down the page.

"But it's extremely rare, meaning us probably finding it is one in a million. It's a long shot," Bella explains.

"Hmm…" I hum, still thinking.

Will turns his attention from the crystals and changes the subject. "So how was school?"

"Fine," I reply. "Jessie stayed home. I finally convinced her to after I kept telling her it would keep Lee's suspicions down."

"Speaking of suspicions…" Will starts. "How's it going with your friend Anna?"

I groan slightly. "Not well," I say regretfully. "I don't see her letting it go any time soon. And I certainly don't see her forgetting it, either."

"Just avoid the subject with her at all costs," Bella advises. "I don't know if it's something to mess around with."

"Believe me, I know," I reassure them. They nod. Now I change the subject. "Any more ideas on the lunar cycles with the moon pools?"

"Well, so far we know what happens during a full moon and a new moon," recounts Will. "Now we need to find out what happens on each of the half moons. At least for a start."

"Good idea," I say.

Bella nods her head. "We have to be careful, though. We don't know what will happen and we can't put any of us in danger."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," I reply. I use reason. "If the moon hasn't killed one of us by now, I don't really think it's planning to." We all laugh at that.

As Will stops laughing, he rummages into a drawer of his desk and takes out a recent calendar. He flips it open to the current month and studies the page. "The next half moon is this Saturday," he informs us.

"So we'll go then," I say.

Bella nods. "Excellent," she confirms. "I'll go tell the other girls." She bids us goodbye, gives Will a kiss, and then leaves.

Will and I go over and sit on the couch. He sighs. "So are you ready to find out about all of this?"

"No," I reply. I turn to him. "Are you?"

He sighs and gives me a sad smile.

"Nope."


	9. Chapter 9

Chap. 9

**Anna**

I had finally decided. I'm going to Mako Island.

My decision wasn't easy. Although I had told myself before, it was more of just wishful thinking then. Now I was serious.

I had come to the complete realization of this after I overheard Mary and Jessie talking about it. There was something extremely fishy going on, and I believed that none other than Mako Island held the key to what it really was.

After hearing my two best friends talking over it, I tried to formulate in my head, put all the pieces together, to come up with something, anything that might lead me to some sort of conclusion. After doing this innumerable times, reversing, switching, and rearranging details, nothing came.

I planned my trip for tomorrow. My dad promised to let me borrow his fishing boat so I could go, so that was straightened out. I had no idea what I was looking for, so I think over it during the days leading up to my trip.

Meanwhile, I come in to school today to see Mary at her locker and Jessie not far behind. I finally decide I need to make amends with them. Yes, I do need to apologize for being a jerk, but there's more to it as well. I need to get back on their good side so they don't become suspicious of what I'm doing. It'd be even better if they didn't know at all. I'm sure not going to be the one to tell them.

But I also need information, which I can only get from them. They obviously know a lot more about that place than they're letting on. I just need to try and get it out of them piece by piece, which won't be an easy task.

I brace myself and approach Mary's locker where she's standing. I plaster on a smile as I receive an odd look from her. "Hey," I greet her.

"Decide to stop ignoring me?" she asks, obviously agitated. She turns her attention from me like she won't give me the time of day.

I swallow back my resentment and keep going. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I just kind of freaked out, I guess…"

"I'd say…" Mary mumbles.

"I should have just let you have that crystal. It was kind of selfish of me not to let you borrow it. Sorry," I see her twitch, knowing my comment about the crystal struck her since she stole it. I go on. "But… I kind of feel like you _are _keeping something from me…" I see her expression go sour. "But if you ever want to talk about it… you can come to me." I thought it was a strong finish.

"I'll keep that in mind," she says. I keep looking at her expectantly, but she doesn't say anything.

I finally break the silence. "So…" She finally glances back up at me. "Are we cool?"

She hesitates. Finally she seems to half-smile. "Yeah," she finally says. "We're cool."

I smile back and give her a hug. She doesn't exactly return it, but it's close enough. "Thanks," I say.

"Sure," she says. I can still feel that air of stiff reluctance with her, but at least we're on better terms now.

I nod my head. "Listen, I have to go and get to class, but I'll see you later," I say in order to escape the rest of the situation.

"Ok," she replies simply. "See you."

I walk off and realize I've made progress. I am now on speaking terms with Mary, so I just have slowly make my way back in to it so I can get what I need.

But I now realize one thing I _do _need. And it's going to be very hard to get.

The crystals.

…

**Mary**

I come home after school. Will is already home, as usual. He's leaning over something at his desk.

"Hey!" I call out to him as I slip off my shoes. I walk over to him and peer over his shoulder. "Whatcha doing?" I ask.

"Studying your scale sample," he replies absentmindedly.

"Did you find anything interesting?" I ask in hopes that he found something of use.

"You mean other than the fact that it's a mermaid scale?" he asks as a joke.

I laugh. "Yeah, besides that."

He laughs too. "No, not really. But I do want to test a few more things."

"You're starting to sound like Lewis," I say. Will looks at me weirdly, as I've never actually met Lewis. "I hear things," I explain with a smirk.

"Ah," Will says with a nod. Without warning, he picks up the soda can next to him and dumps some of it on to my arm.

"Wil!" I yell at him. He's already out of his chair and is pushing me towards the couch. By the time I get there and am laying on it, I grow my familiar golden tail. I scold him. "What was that for?"

"I was trying to test a theory," he explains himself.

I groan. "At least warn me next time, alright?"

"Ok," he agrees. He studies my tail, obviously looking for an answer to his theory. I give him a minute as his blue eyes travel up and down the length of my body, looking for a significant difference that I can barely imagine what it might be this time. And then I realize something.

"Why did you splash me with soda this time?" I ask. Why wouldn't he just use water?

"Because that was my theory," he answers. "I didn't know if only water changed you or not. Anything that contains enough water changes the girls, so I wanted to test that on you." He looks confused for a minute, then frustrated, probably within his own mind. He looks over my tail again. "It just doesn't make sense!" he says, this time actually sounding frustrated. "You and Jessie became mermaids differently than the other girls did. There should be something different about you guys!"

"Calm down, Will," I say. I think it over for a second, trying to come up with something that will satisfy him as an answer. "I mean, Jessie and I have four powers and they each only have one." I hope that will be enough.

It's not. "That's different," he answers. "There should be something else. Like your tail or how you change. It doesn't make sense that you were changed a different way and are exactly the same in that way."

I nod and think this over. But then, just as I'm about to say something, I stop. And I laugh.

Will just watches me laugh and then narrows his eyes. "What?"

I keep laughing. "You!" I say in between giggles.

"Me?" he asks.

"Yes, you!" I finally calm myself down and am able to explain. "You're way to into this."

"What do you mean?" he asks.

I try to explain. "It's just…" I giggle. "You want to know about this so badly for some reason, even more than Jessie and I. Why?"

Will considers this and thinks it over. I think he realizes this is true, but not until now. He explains himself. "Because I care about you," he says. "I can't let anything happen to you. And I _need _to understand this so I can protect you."

I nod. I realize Will wants to protect me. But I realize something else, too. "You know, Will…" I start. He looks away from my tail and up at my eyes. "We're doing alright so far."

He smiles understandingly. "Yeah, I know you are."

I elaborate. "So you don't need to worry."

He nods. "I know I don't," he says. "But I do anyway."

I smile. "We'll be fine," I tell him. "I promise."

"Yeah," he says, returning the smile. "I know you will."


	10. Chapter 10

Chap. 10

**Jessie**

I found Mary the next morning at her locker. As I walk up to her, she seems fidgety and nervous. It was peculiar of Mary to be like that.

"Hey," I greet her when I walk up. She looks over at me and gives me a half hearted smile. My expression twists as I know it. "What's wrong?" I ask her with concern.

"Hi," She returns the greeting. "It's nothing," she tells me. I know her too well otherwise. "Just a little nervous."

I look at her curiously. "What about?"

She shrugs her shoulders at me. "Tonight's the half moon, remember?"

I forgot about that. "Oh, yeah… I forgot…" I admit.

"I'm just nervous about what might happen…" she says. I nod understandingly.

Her face changes. There's something else that's bothering her, too. "What else is it?" I ask. She smiles knowingly, as if giving me the mutual signal that she knows I know her too well.

"It's Anna," she says. I'm confused. She sees this, so she explained. "Yesterday, Anna came up to me and tried to mend things. I reluctantly did, but I think there's something else."

I could see where she thinks this. "Yeah, Anna's not exactly one to let go of a grudge…"

"Exactly," Mary says, confirming my thought. "It wasn't like her… I think she's has something up her sleeve, and it's starting to worry me."

I try to reassure her. Besides, we have bigger issues now. "Don't worry about it," I tell her. "We have other problems to worry about now anyway. She can't do much about it either way. As long as we're careful nothing could go wrong." I bite my tongue when those words come out. Whenever a person says that in the movies, everything goes wrong. I gulp and hope I'm not a movie.

She shakes her head, as if trying to shake out the thoughts. She eventually nods. "You're right," she says. I give a mental sigh of relief knowing my words made her feel better, glad that she doesn't know they made me possibly feel worse. "We just need to get through tonight before we worry about anything else."

I nod. Suddenly, the bell rings. "We better get to class," I tell Mary. She also nods.

For the rest of the day, we go through our classes, anxiously awaiting whatever will be in store for us later.

…

**Will**

Bella, Cleo, Rikki, and I walk home together after school in order to prepare for our journey to Mako.

When we get to the boathouse, we grab a bag and start putting useful supplies in it. Maps, a compass, calendars, and most importantly, the crystals that make this all possible. As Rikki throws a pencil in to the bag, she comments, "So which one of us is going to be the test mermaid for this one?"

I scowl at the way she says it. She made it sound a lot worse than it really is. "Mary said she would this time. She told me that last night."

Bella knows me too well. She sees the look on my face that I'm trying desperately to hide. She knows I don't want Mary to do this. "Will, I'll do it instead."

I know Mary won't go for that, so I speak for her instead of myself. "No, Mary needs to do this. I don't want to put you through that anyway."

"I know you don't want to put her through it either," she counters.

"It was her idea," I say right back. She shrugs and lets it go. She knows how it'll end anyway.

Finally, Mary and Jessie come in. "Hi," they greet the four of us.

Now that they're here, we can go. "Ready?" I ask them nervously.

Jessie twists her expression in confusion. "Shouldn't we wait until the moon rises?"she inquires.

I shake my head. "It won't matter anyway. As long as it's that day of the lunar cycle, whatever's meant to happen will happen."

Mary shrugs. "Then I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be." She glances at Jessie. She gives a slight nod.

"Alright," I say. "Let's go."

We head out the door. The five girls dive off of the dock and I jump in my boat. Then we're off.

…

**Anna **

As soon as school's over, I get home as quickly as possible, running as fast as I can to get there. By the time I finally make it, I'm out of breath and have to stop for a minute. As soon as I'm recovered, I go inside and throw my school bag down. I grab another one that I packed last night for Mako out of anxiousness and take it back outside. I run towards the docks and throw the bag in to my dad's small fishing boat.

I jump in to the boat myself after that and turn on the engine. As soon as I get it working and I'm out of the docks, I take a map out of my bag and study it, trying to make my way to the mysterious island. We did it once, I could do it again.

It takes me about thirty minutes to make my unfamiliar journey. I start to think I read the map wrong and that I was going the wrong way, but then Mako Island finally showed itself over the horizon of the water.

I finally docked my boat on the shore. Looking down the sandy beach, I see another boat similar to mine. It's peculiar that anyone would be here, but it also reassures me in a way that someone else is here. If anything were to happen to me, at least _someone _would be around to know.

I take out a different map and begin making my hike. I walk, pushing my way through heavy jungle. I'm looking for the cave we were in before. Other than that, I have no idea what else I'm looking for…

I try to look around me for things that are familiar. I vaguely remember some of it, so I hopefully assume I'm going the right direction.

Finally, the trees open up and I come to the familiar clearing. I see the large rocks and the familiar waterfall. I carefully make my way across the rocks and find the opening between them, forming the cave that we slid down before. I slide down it now as my heart beat races up. I hit the ground at the bottom with a yelp.

I smile, as I realize that I made it. I might actually get answers. I look up. On the other side of the cave, I see the opening to the other. I see a blue light and feel a draft, but as quickly as I saw it, it goes away.

I narrow my eyes at it. I slowly get up and soundlessly make my way towards the other side of the cave…

…

**Mary**

We mermaids made it to the cave before Will could, but he was only a few minutes behind. The other girls had gotten out and dried themselves off while waiting for him, leaving me behind in the pool, as we all knew and decided that this was going to be my turn. I gulped.

Will finally came in with the bag containing the crystals. He was out of breath, signaling he had made the hike as fast as he could. He looked down at me in the pool. "You ready?" he asks me.

"Yes," I say, but everything in my head is screaming no. I don't have a good feeling about this, but I need to take one for the team. If this is going to haunt us, we can't risk anything.

"Ok," Will says. He looks at me suspiciously, as if he knows my true feelings about this, but he proceeds any way. He takes the crystals out of the bag and I brace myself as he begins placing them. But before he can, Jessie calls out.

"Wait!" she yells. This stops Will abruptly.

"What?" Rikki says irritated. She obviously wants to get this on, too.

Jessie walks towards the moon pool. "I want to do this with Mary," she says confidently.

Will raises his eyebrows at her. "You sure?"

She jumps over the side and splashes into the moon pool next to me. She transforms then looks back up at Will and nods. "I'm sure."

He nods. "Ok," he says solemnly. He places the last crystal.

The cave, as expected, comes alive. I look at Jessie. She gives me a reassuring nod.

Everything starts happening. The wind starts blowing and the blue glow falls over the cave. Bella, Cleo, Rikki, and Will all cling to the rock wall to stay back.

But suddenly, we hear a scream. A human scream.

I look at Jessie. The fear in her face tells me she saw it too. I don't waste any time. "STOP!" I yell. "PULL THE CRYSTALS!"

Will immediately does as I say. He heard the scream too, and by the looks on the other girls' faces so did they. Suddenly, we hear footsteps.

They become closer. My stomach tightens. The person finally comes through the passage of the cave.

It's Anna.

I stay stiff. Her eyes widen as she sees me and Jessie I the water. I glance over at Will. I see shock all over his face, as well as the feeling that he has no idea what to do. I look at the other girls. They are showing shock as well. Finally, I glance at Jessie. She's staying like I am. She's not breaking.

I finally say the first thing that comes into my mind. My voice is quiet and slow.

"I can explain."


	11. Chapter 11

Chap. 11

**Will**

"I can explain."

Although her voice is quiet, it rings through the cave as the only form of noise. I'm stricken dead silent at the sight of the teenage girl who I've never seen before, seeing my sister and her best friend as a mermaid. But nothing has raised more inside of me than fear.

I wonder who this girl is and what is about to happen, but I don't dare move. One of my questions is answered by Jessie. "Anna…"

Anna. The girl Mary and Jessie have been telling me about. The suspicious one and their other best friend. And most importantly, the only other person who saw what really happened. I gulp.

The shock and fear Anna's obviously possessing is too much for her. She begins to shake her head and slowly back up.

Mary and I see what's happening at the same time. "Will, grab her!" she yells to me.

I don't hesitate to obey. I lunge for Anna and grab her around her waist. She screams. "Shh!" I say.

She struggles in my grasp, but I don't let go. "LET ME GO!" she yells at the top of her lungs. I don't. I pray to God that we're the only ones on this island and no one else heard that.

"Anna," Jessie tries. "You have to calm down." She looks to me. "Will, turn her away."

I do. I can tell by the noise that Mary and Jessie are getting out of the water and changing back. They don't want Anna to see any of that. Anna's still struggling, but my grasp doesn't lighten in the slightest. She's panting heavily. She's not taking this well.

I try to distract her from the noise behind us. "Anna, you need to listen to me. You have to calm down."

She shakes her head violently. "No! Now let… me… go!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't. Just please, relax. We can explain. All of us can explain." She stops struggling briefly. I'm hoping my words meant something to her.

"Ok," I hear Mary's voice again. "Turn her around." I do so.

Anna and I, her still in my grasp, are now facing Mary, Jessie, Bella, Cleo, and Rikki. They don't look happy. Jessie speaks. "Anna, let us explain."

She shakes her head in disbelief. "What's… what's going on?" she demands. "You guys are… are…"

"Mermaids," Mary says, pain showing in her voice at having to say it out loud. "We're mermaids."

I don't see Anna's face, but based on the others' faces, it's not exactly a favorable result. It's a look that tells me I need to keep holding on.

Mary crosses her arms. "What are you doing here?" she asks her sternly. They're obviously not going to mess around.

Anna switches gears. "I believe you have some explaining to do first," she shoots back. I can tell y her attitude now that it's safe to release her. I let go. As I hoped, she stays put, but I keep my guard out in case she, for some reason, decides otherwise.

Jessie raises her eyebrows. "We'll see where we get with this," Jessie says. "But _you _have to explain first."

Anna crosses her arms now too. "Fine," she reluctantly agrees. "I came here for answers." That's all she says.

My expression turns sour. This isn't going well, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon. Now seeing what's happening, I can easily see why Mary and Jessie rejected the idea of telling her so quickly.

We're all silent for a while. By the looks of their faces, they're all really deep in thought while I'm still trying to figure out how to handle this. I mean, what should we do? I shake my head behind Anna. The others look at me. They understand.

Mary finally speaks. "Answers to what?" she asks suspiciously.

"To whatever has been up with you guys," Anna retorts. She looks Mary and Jessie up and down. "Guess I found my answer." She says it with edge that makes my stomach drop. "Now are _you_ ready to talk?" she says, motioning with her head to the girls.

I step up. "Don't," I tell them. I don't see this going well, no matter what they say or don't say. I fear we're all going to be stuck here forever with this ultimatum.

Anna turns on me. "What are you even doing here?" she snaps at me. She whips around again and motions to Bella, Cleo, and Rikki. "And them?"

Uh-oh. I gulp. I never prepared for what we would say; I was too concerned about Mary and Jessie to even think about it. Luckily, to my relief, Mary snaps an answer at her. "That's not important."

I realize that for Mary and Jessie, acting this spiteful won't make it better, if anything, worse. I speak up. "Guys, calm down. You can't act like this."

Jessie's face softens. Mary, on the other hand, still seems angry. I try to reason with her. "Acting like this won't get you anywhere."

"He's right," Anna says with attitude.

"You too," I tell her sternly. She looks back at me. "If you act like this and honestly expect them to tell you what's going on, you're sadly mistaken."

She frowns and rolls her eyes, a reluctant acceptance that I'm right. She looks to the other girls with pleading eyes now, trying to change her attitude. "Why won't you tell me? I know most if it already."

Jessie narrows her eyes, but now it' more in peace. "What do you mean you already know?"

Anna shrugs. "I know you're mermaids and I know it happened here. What else could there possibly be?"

Mary scoffs under her breath. "You don't know the half of it…" she mumbles.

Jessie shakes her head. "Maybe we should do this later."

"Is that really a good idea? I mean-" Anna cuts me off.

"Maybe you're right," she concedes.

Jessie's face turns serious. "But Anna… you can't tell ANYONE. Not a soul in the world. NO ONE. Understood?"

Anna's eyes narrow. "What if I do?"

Mary speaks up, in a way that's still hostile, but it's at least an appropriate time for it. "Then you can forget us telling you anything. In fact, you can forget us entirely because we'll end up in a science laboratory." I cringe at the thought of my little sister ending up a science experiment, more of one than we've seemed to already make her.

"Is that clear?" I say sternly.

Anna turns to me. She nods feverishly. "Crystal," she responds. I smile in my head. The irony.

Mary turns to me. "Will, take her out of here." She turns to Bella, Cleo, and Rikki. "You guys stay." They nod understandingly.

"Wait-" Anna starts, but I'm already leading her out.

We eventually get out of the cave and hike through the jungle in silence and not looking at each other. I guess she's thinking. She must have gone inane in her mind because it pours all out. She screams and falls to her knees. She turns to me. "What's going on?"

I don't know how to respond. I kneel down beside her and put a reassuring hand on her back. "I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

She groans. "I don't understand… not any of it. Why won't they tell me what's going on?"

I shrug. "It's a matter of trust. They need to know they can trust you."

"They should know by now that they can," she counters.

I nod. "But this is a whole new thing. What's happened in the past doesn't matter. They need to know they can trust you _now_."

She looks at me deeply. "How can I tell them they can?"

I remember my own experience with Mary telling me she's a mermaid. "You can't just tell them. You have to _show _them."

I help her to her feet and we walk the rest of the way to the shore. We get to the boats. I turn to her in all seriousness. "You have to do two things for me," I tell her, holding up the number with my fingers.

She nods. "Anything."

"First. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody anything. Understood?" She nods. I move on. "Second. Don't come back to this island. Don't come back here, don't do anything, don't say anything. Are we clear?"

She looks hesitant. "But…"

"Absolutely no buts," I tell her. "If you want this to work, you have to do as I say. Are we clear?"

She nods. "Ok," I finally say. I motion to her boat. "Go on."

She heads towards her boat. As she walks away, she turns back to me. I look back at her. "Thanks."

I nod once. She goes on and gets in her boat, then she goes and heads back to shore.

Now I jump in my boat, shaking from fear at the future.


	12. Chapter 12

Chap. 12

**Jessie**

We all get back to shore as quickly as possible, hopefully being careful enough to avert Anna's journey. We're all shaken up and worried out of our minds.

When we finally get back after what seemed like the longest swim home of our lives, we all gather back at the boat house. The air is grim and we're all quiet, thinking probably the same things. I decide to break the silence.

"Alright," I say crushingly. "What are we going to do?"

Will shakes his head. "Isn't it obvious? We have to tell her. What other choice do we have?"

Bella speaks now. "The only question is how much we tell her." We all nod, knowing she's right.

"So to what extent do we go?" asks Cleo.

I shake my head. "We don't tell her about you guys. There's no sense dragging you under with us if there's no need to. This is our problem. We need to deal with it ourselves."

"Not without our help," Will says. "We have to be careful. Not just for you guys but for all of us. One wrong move and we could all end up in deep water."

I nod. "Right."

Cleo speaks again. "Ok," she says. She begins referring to my last comment. "The only problem with keeping us three from her is the fact that we were just there. How exactly do we explain that?"

"We don't until it's a problem," I reply. "The important thing is focusing on what we tell Anna up front. We can carefully work our way through the rest."

"So what exactly does she know?" asks Rikki.

I think about it. "She only said that she knows we're mermaids and that it happened in that cave."

"She doesn't have much to work with, then…" says Rikki.

Bella looks distressed. "What if she goes back there?"

Will shakes his head. "She won't. She promised me she wouldn't."

Bella looks confused. "When?"

I wave my arms to distract their attention. "Focus!" I say. They snap themselves out of it and apologize.

"With the little she knows, how 'bout we just connect the pieces for her to the most basic thing you can get?" suggests Will.

My face probably looks confused. "What do you mean?"

He explains himself. "She only knows your mermaids and that it happened on Mako. Just give her the extreme basics. You guys change when you touch water, the crystals and the reaction are what caused your transformation and moon is weird to you guys. That's it."

I consider this. "That's probably our best option. What happens when she starts asking questions about other things?"

He shakes his head. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The important thing is making sure your secret's safe with her."

I nod knowingly. Suddenly, I realize Mary's been quiet this entire time. I look over at her. She's just staring blankly at the floor with her arms crossed, shaking her head.

"Mary…?" I ask. "Are you ok?"

I don't know what I did to set her off, but she suddenly storms towards the door and leaves the house. We all look confused. Will starts after her, but Bella stops him. "Will, I've got this," she says.

Then she goes out the door after Mary.

…

**Mary **(credit to **katara4494 **for this scene idea!)

I stand there with everybody, just listening to them talk about what just happened and how to fix it. I shake my head as I hear their words.

I didn't know if I could do it, if I could bear it. This whole thing was under control two weeks ago and now its blown up in our faces so much that I don't know what to do.

"Mary?" Jessie suddenly asks. "Are you ok?"

The minute her words come, I lose it. Without any explanation, I run out of the house. As I do, I feel tears streaming down my face.

I look around and decide to sit on the edge of the dock. As I go and fall to my knees, I let out a sob. I sniff and wipe my tears. I just needed to do that once, and once I did, I could calm myself down.

It didn't take long to hear footsteps come up behind me. I sniffed again. I assumed it was Will. "I'm not in the mood, Will," I call out.

"Good thing I'm not Will," says, to my surprise, Bella as she approaches. She stands next to me. "Mind if I sit?"

I motion to the area of dock next to me. "Feel free," I say. She takes a seat next to me.

We sit in silence for a minute. Bella finally breaks the silence between us. "Mary, are you ok?"

It takes all I have not to burst out a sob again. Luckily, I find myself able to hold it back. I shake my head instead. "No."

She sighs. "Yeah, I know the feeling." She chuckles lightly, trying to lighten the air. Instead, I turn to her seriously.

"How did you do it?" I ask her. I've heard Bella's story before, about Ireland and how she was only nine. "How did you do it all by yourself at such a young age? I'm fourteen and have all of you… and I still can't handle it."

She shakes her head. "I have no idea how I managed. But somehow I did," she explains. "And you're doing just fine."

I shake my head now, too and scoff. "No, I'm not. I can't even handle it to a point where I can keep my own secret, let alone everything that comes with it."

She quickly defends me. "When we found out about you, it wasn't your fault." She laughs. "It's not like you expected any other mermaids to be around watching you swim."

I laugh a little, too. "No, not really."

"And same with Anna," she goes on. "How were you supposed to know she'd show up in that cave right then?"

I roll my eyes. "I should have known better…"

"Don't talk like that," she replies. "You had no way to know." I shrug.

"But, Mary…" she says. "Being a mermaid comes with a price."

"And I don't know if I have what it takes to pay it…" I say.

"I know you do," Bella says. "You have more than enough. But you have to be _willing. _Otherwise, you'll go up in flames. Trust me, I know."

I look at her peculiarly. "How do you know?"

She sighs and stares off. "I was your age. I had a crush on a boy named Lucas." She smiles silly. "He seemed like such a nice guy. We knew each other really well. But one day, he got suspicious of me. He thought something was up."

I chuckle. "Sounds like Will," I comment.

She shakes her head. "Lucas was nothing like Will." She goes on, "Anyway, Lucas asked me what was up with me one day while we were on the beach. I was too crazy in puppy-love with him. I thought I could trust him, but I was blind."

I'm on the edge of my seat now. "Did you tell him?"

She nods regretfully. "I did. He didn't believe me. So, to prove it, he splashed me with water in front of everyone on the beach."

My eyes widen. "What did you do?"

"I ran for the water and disappeared. _Then _he believed me," she says. She sighs. "He couldn't believe it. He tried to tell everyone he knew about me, but no one believed him. I just don't want the same thing to happen to you guys."

"But I'm not even in love. Or like or whatever," I tell her.

"True," she syas. "But the real point of this is saying that you're going to mess up every once in a while. It comes with it, and there's nothing you can do about it." She smirks. "Cleo, Rikki, and I all made mistakes. But we turned out to be pretty good mermaids."

I laugh. "Yeah, you did."

"But Mary," she says seriously. "You'll be fine. We know you can handle this."

"We?" I ask.

"We." She smiles. "We mermaids know you can. And Will does too."

I get hopeful. "He does?" I ask.

She nods again. "Yeah. He believes in you guys and he trusts you."

I smile at the thought. Suddenly, I find myself throwing my arms around Bella's neck. "Thanks, Bella." She's surprised at first, but soon, she returns my hug.

"You're welcome," she replies sincerely. We break apart. "Come on, we'd better get back in there. She stands up and helps me to my feet.

And now I walk back in with confidence, finally realizing and really knowing that we're not alone with this. Not anymore.


	13. Chapter 13

Chap. 13

**Will**

Jessie, Cleo, Rikki, and I all glanced back and forth to one another anxiously as we waited for Bella and Mary to come back in. It took them a few minutes. I was starting to get worried and I almost went out, but as I try, they both come through the door.

Mary looks a lot better now, she doesn't look grim anymore, she looks almost relieved. I shoot Bella a glance that says, _What'd you do? _She gives me a small smile and shrugs.

Despite probably already knowing the answer, I ask Mary anyway. "Are you ok?"

She nods. "I'm fine," she tells me, "Now let's focus."

I'm taken aback by how quickly she wants to get back in to this. But if she's sure, we're not going to waste any time. "So what are we going to do?" I ask the group.

Jessie just shakes her head and shrugs. "I guess we'll just have to talk to her. It's only a matter of how long we wait."

"It's more of a matter than that…" I mutter.

Mary sighs. "How far do we go with this? Do we wait or do we tell her soon?"

"I'd say wait," Bella suggests. "She needs a few days to cool down. This isn't something just anyone takes lightly. I know from personal experience…" She shoots me a glance. I feel my face get hot and red.

"A few days could be dangerous," Mary says. "We don't know what she's thinking or what she's planning."

"Mary's right," I say, "We don't know what we're dealing with." I turn to Mary and Jessie. "Anna's your friend. What do you _think _she's thinking?"

Jessie shakes her head. "No idea. It's Anna. She's unpredictable." Mary nods in agreement.

"Can she keep a secret?" I ask anxiously.

Mary moves back and forth, as if contemplating the answer. "Hard to tell. She can… but I don't know about this one…" I sigh. That's not what I want to hear.

"You'll do the only thing you can do," Cleo comments. "You just need to take it day by day."

Rikki nods in agreement. "But just one thing to remember. Be careful." It's not surprising that she says this. Rikki's been super careful with their secret ever since I came along. Now even though I'm in the picture, she's not taking any chances.

"They're right," I agree. "The only thing you can do at this point is get on with your lives. You'll go to school tomorrow and see how it goes. We can only hope for the best."

Everyone nods. Mary's comment is quiet. "Oh, gosh."

…

**Anna**

That night, my head is spinning. I make my way back to shore before it gets dark and go home to think. I must even look off, because when I get inside, my mom asks what's wrong. I tell her nothing anyway.

That brought the problem inside my head. Oh, gosh. What do I do? I just found out that my two best friends are mermaids. That's not… normal. Obviously.

Something's wrong with them. They need a doctor. Or a scientist. They can't go on like this. That'd be… crazy.

But I was sworn to secrecy by Will. I promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone and I promised I wouldn't go back to the island. I contemplate the second one, because with recent discoveries, I'm tempted. But I have to keep my word. Which also means I can't tell anyone.

I sigh. What if I talk to them? Maybe I can convince them to get help or a doctor or science or whatever. It might be dangerous to let them be the way they are. _They _might be dangerous.

I gasp. I never thought of that. What if they are dangerous? Then I could be in danger too…

Now I sounded crazy. I wasn't in danger. What was I thinking?

I tried to calm myself down and regain composure. I was failing.

I tried to think back on some significance that would help me. Little things came. Will was there. He obviously knew and had something to do with it. So were those three teenage girls that I had never seen before, so they knew, too. They had to be involved to. But I had no idea how. I'm not sure of the significance. Hopefully it will come in time.

Will told me to keep it a secret and stay away from the island. I could do that. It was a good start.

He also told me that I needed to _show _I was trustworthy rather than just saying it. But how? How could I show my two best friends that I'm trustworthy? They should know I am, and they should be able to trust me.

Then another thing came in to my headf. Will said it didn't matter. This was something totally new. It was bigger. What happened in the past didn't matter now. Now I understood.

Even though I figured that out, that still didn't tell me _how _to show them I'm trustworthy. I try to recap in order to help.

I just found out that my two best friends are mermaids. Will knows and those three girls know this, too. It has something to do with Mako Island. I was told to keep this a secret and I was told not to go back to that Island. I'm freaking out right now. I'll probably freak out next time I see them.

Then it hit me. I was probably going to freak out. That's exactly what they expected of me. And that's exactly what they don't want to happen.

That's how I'll show them. I won't freak out. I need to stay totally normal and calm, for them, keep my composure so they know they can trust me. But I hope they wait. _I _still don't trust myself with this.

But now, by all means necessary, I need to stay calm. I need to keep living and try and act like everything is normal, even though everything seems as if it's far from. It's what a good friend would do for them, and I need to show them I'm one of those too.

I just need to go to school tomorrow and hope for the best.

I almost whisper to myself. "Oh gosh…"


	14. Chapter 14

Chap. 14

**Jessie**

Mary and I are really anxious the next day. We both could barely sleep out of nervous anticipation. I got up, sleepy eyed and tired as ever, yet still lacking the ability to sleep and sent Mary a text. _Can you sleep? _

I figured if I didn't get a reply, then she would be. It was pretty early, after all. But sure enough, a simple reply came. _No. _

I sighed. This day wasn't going to be easy. After a few more texts back and forth, we decided we would walk to school together and talk about it, make a game plan.

As I got dressed and ate breakfast, I tried to think up ideas that could help us, but nothing came. How were you supposed to plan for a reaction that could have a million different outcomes? When I realized my attempts were futile, I felt even more nervous. Now I couldn't even correctly prepare myself for what was to come.

I walked out of the door, even before Lee did. She was still upstairs in her room, and the last thing I wanted to have was her interrogating me about my whereabouts on a day like this. I rolled my eyes at the thought.

When I got to Mary's boat house, I saw her waiting outside for me. I approached her with what I could manage of a reassuring smile. She tried to return it, but failed.

"Hey," I greeted her.

"Hey," she returned the greeting. "Ready?"

I shook my head. "No," I replied flatly. ""You?"

"No." I sighed. I felt the morning breeze around us. It made my long ponytail skim my neck. It gave me a chill, which made me realize I was shaking.

Suddenly, I heard the door on the house slam shut. It interrupted the quiet, making me jump slightly. I looked over. It was Will. He came jogging toward us.

Mary looked confused. "What's wrong?" she asked. I guess it wasn't normal for him to just come running out of the house.

When he made it to us, he took a moment to catch his breath. "Nothing," he told us. "I just wanted to make sure you guys were ok."

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" I ask him in reply.

"I mean for today. Will you guys be alright?" he asks, obviously concerned.

"We're going to have to be," Mary tells him. "But we'll manage somehow."

He nods and gives Mary a hug from the side. I can just barely hear him when he says, "Be careful."

Mary nods, still pressed up beside him in a hug. "We will," she reassures him. They release on another. "We have to go. We'll see you later."

"Ok," Will says. He starts back towards the house. He calls over his shoulder. "Good luck."

"Thanks!" we call back.

We walk to school in silence. I guess we both realize that trying to prepare ourselves is useless without knowing what's to come. Not knowing is what scares us the most. I guess each other's presence is reassuring to us, knowing that we're not in it alone.

As I walk, I clench and unclench my fists in nervousness. I look over at Mary. She's clawing and scratching at the strap of her book bag. I see the little threads come off. Her eyes are trained determinedly ahead.

Our footsteps echo evenly of the sidewalk, keeping a steady pace. I feel the breeze move my blue tank top. Mary is still staring ahead. I nudge her. ""Are you ok?"

She nods. "Ok as I'll ever e right now," she tells me. She shrug. "Just thinking."

"What about?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Just thinking about everything I guess." She looks over at me with a half smile. "We got ourselves in to a mess, haven't we?"

I nod as we keep walking. "Yeah, we did." I chuckle. I look over at her. "Do you think we can handle it?"

"Everyone else seems to think we can," she tells me. I'm surprised. I didn't know that. "I guess we're just too busy doubting ourselves."

I nod. "You're probably right. We just need to keep on going."

"Mhm. And that's what we'll do." she says.

We finally approach the school. We both take a deep breath and look at each other. We both give the other a nod and keep going.

As soon as we get towards the school, we look around for Anna. I don't see her. By the look on Mary's face, neither does she. Maybe she didn't come to school. I gulp. I don't think that's a really good thing.

The crowds of students around us make noise on the school grounds. They open the doors to let us in. I still don't see Anna. Maybe when we get inside we'll see her at her locker.

Mary and I climb the steps together to our floor. Our other friends say hi to us here and there, but we can barely pay them any mind. We're too anxious and nervous. At this point, my heart is pounding out of my chest.

Mary and I part and go to our lockers. I dial in my combination number and swing open the door. As I'm putting books in my locker, I look around again. And then I see her at her locker. Anna.

Anna's here. My heart goes faster.

I study her to try and assess what's going on. She looks completely normal, not like she's freaking out or anything. She's wearing an orange sundress and her curly brown hair is pulled back behind her in a braid. She's opening her locker. She wears a nonchalant expression on her face.

Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder and I jump. I turn my head.

"Relax, it's just me," says Mary. I feel relief. "You saw her, right?"

I nod. I make a snap decision. "Now or never," I tell Mary. Then I start in Anna's direction.

"Jessie, wait-" But it's too late. I'm already approaching Anna. I feel a knot in my stomach.

I stop next to her locker. She looks away from putting her books in and looks to me. She turns her attention back to her locker. "Hey," she greets me.

Hey? That's all I got _Hey? _

"Hi," I reply. "What's up?" I try to sound like everything's fine, even though in my world, it's not.

"Nothing really," she replies. "But I heard we're having a pop quiz in biology. Don't forget your notes."

I can't believe it. She's acting totally normal, as if she _didn't _just find out that her two best friends are mermaids. It's not exactly normal.

"Right," I say. I sense Mary come up beside me. I don't bother to look, I keep my attention on Anna. "So… are you ok?" I ask delicately.

"Sure, why not?" she asks with a peculiar expression.

Seriously? Wow. "Well, because… you know… you just found out that me and Mary…" I motion to the two of us. "… we're…"

"I wouldn't say that so loud if I were you," Anna says. She's right. I should probably keep my voice down. The shock doesn't leave my head, but I'm not showing it on my face. Anna speaks again. "But, yeah, I'm ok."

Suddenly, the bell rings. Anna looks at the time then turns to us. "Listen, I've got to get to homeroom before I'm marked late. I'll see you guys later." She walks off towards her classroom.

I turn to Mary, now letting the disbelief show on my face. She has the same look too, and we're both thinking the same thing.

_Did that just happen?_


	15. Chapter 15

Chap. 15

**Mary**

After our occurrence with Anna that morning, I was shocked. She was taking it so well. She didn't freak out or anything.

The rest of the day that proceeded went on completely normally. We all talked like we normally did and everything seemed fine. Jessie and I didn't dare bring up the subject again, we were probably more freaked out then she was just based on her reaction.

Not only was I freaking out about the unexpected reaction from Anna, but I was also a little suspicious too. Her reaction wasn't right. There was something off about it. After finding out something big like that, you don't just go on about it like everything is normal. There was something more too it.

I tried to think nothing of it. Maybe she was just trying to suppress her surprise and put on a good face for us. I didn't know. But I couldn't help but think there was something more behind it.

Jessie and I decided amongst ourselves that we'll gradually bring up the mermaid thing to Anna again after we figure out what to do. Now that we know her initial reaction, we can be better prepared next time we confront her.

Sadly, the reaction she _did _give us was the last thing expected, there taking us completely off guard. We hadn't even thought to plan for this reaction. It was the last thing we expected. So now we were left with only one question; What do we do now?

Obviously, we decided to take Will in to account on this one. After school that afternoon, Jessie and I went back to my house to consult Will. I stormed and stomped all the way there. The whole way, Jessie kept telling me to calm down, but I wouldn't. I was too stressed, to confused to care.

It wasn't just the whole situation that was making me like this. It was Anna's reaction and whatever the thing behind it might be. It just wasn't right, and it was really starting to twist me up… I know I shouldn't take it out on Jessie, and I'm not meaning to, but I just can't help it. I apologize to her, but I'm still mad.

I march towards me home, determined and angry. I feel my fists clench and unclench, digging my long fingernails in to my skin. The wind whips my blond ponytail around my face. I look over at Jessie. Her own auburn hair is whipping around too.

Despite my efforts, I can't clear my head and I can't suppress my anger. When I get home finally, it causes my to slam the door behind me. Jessie shakes her head.

Will is already home. He stands from the couch and looks at me with a peculiar, wondering expression. "What's wrong?" he asks. He doesn't bother to say hello, and neither do we.

When I don't say anything, it doesn't take him long to figure it out. "What happened today?" I see a look of regret in his eyes. "It didn't go well?" he questions, making it sound as if it's painful to say. I can obviously tell he's worried.

I shake my head. "Oh, no," I say. I'm almost yelling. "It went really, really well!"

He gives me another odd expression. "Then that's… good…" he says slowly. "What's the problem?" He's confused.

"It went well!" I say in reply. Jessie tells me to calm down again. I ignore her. "_That's _the problem. It wasn't supposed to go well! There was no way in which it could have gone well… or at least the way it did."

Now Will looks really confused. "I'm not getting it… You should be happy that it went well."

To keep me from going on some sort of rampage, Jessie speaks up instead. "But we're not. The way it went… her reaction. It shouldn't have been that simple. It didn't seem like an option. We didn't expect it, and now that it did, we don't know what to do." She makes it sound rational.

Will nods. His understanding is a little cleared up now. He sits back down on the couch and invites us to sit too. When we do, I'm calming down a little and Will tries to have us keep going. "Tell me exactly what happened."

We explain it to him. It doesn't take very long, it's a simple story. I still need to calm down a little more, so Jessie goes on to explain it.

"We went in to school this morning and decided to confront Anna about it as soon as possible. We tried to prepare ourselves, but we had no clue what was to come. So when we approached her she just acted… totally normal. It wasn't right, and it wasn't something Anna would do." Jessie finishes.

Will nods and takes this all in. He pauses and thinks. He finally speaks. "What exactly did she say?"

"Nothing of interest," Jessie replies. "Just sounded like normal conversation." She shrugs. "When we brought it up, she warned us not to talk about it too loudly. That was really it on the subject before the bell rang."

"I guess that means she didn't tell anyone if she was warning _you _to keep your own secret," Will proposes. We shrug. Maybe he's right. He goes on with the questions. "Did you guys bring it up or say anything about it later?"

We both shake our heads. "No," Jessie tells him. "We talked to her a little throughout the day, but nothing about us being mermaids. We decided we needed to figure out exactly what to do before we confronted her about it…"

"I don't understand," Will says. "Why are you guys so worried? It sounds like everything went well and confronting her a second time won't be a problem."

It's my turn to talk. "The problem is," I start. Even speaking about it, I somehow manage to keep my cool, but anger is bubbling inside of me. It's not as much anger as it is frustration. "the reaction she gave us isn't the reaction expected."

"So she gave you the unexpected. So what?" Will still isn't getting it.

"SO…" It's a sign to him not to interrupt again. He takes the hint and quiets down. "What Anna did isn't something she would do. Especially after her first initial reaction at the moon pool when she really did find out. There's something fishy about what she did, and there' something more behind it. We don't know what it is and it's worrying us." I finally finish.

Will nods knowingly. "Ah…" he says. He understands now. "So what are you going to do?"

We shake our heads. "We don't know," Jessie says. "We decided we better consult you first."

Suddenly, Will pulls my phone out of my pocket, opens it, and puts it in my hand. "Call her. Tell her to come over now."

I look at Will in disbelief. "Are you insane?" I ask him. "We can't just get her over here and-" He cuts me off.

"Why not?" he asks. "What other option do you really have?"

I open my mouth to protest, but I close it when I realize I don't have a defense. I know he's right. Jessie announces it. "He's right, ya know."

I nod in agreement. "I know he is." I smile and push Will playfully. "I hate it when you do that." He chuckles and pushes me back.

He pushes my hand with the phone towards me. "Now stop stalling," he demands. "Call her."

I sigh. I don't want to, but I know I have to. I open my phone and send Anna a text.

_Hey, _it reads. _Can you come over to my house…? We need to talk._


	16. Chapter 16

Chap. 16

**Will**

After I told Mary to invite her friend Anna over, we all got very nervous. We didn't know what was going to happen or what to expect. We were scared. Mary sent the message. Ten minutes later, we got the reply that said Anna would be here.

I decided to tell Bella, Cleo, and Rikki to come to. We couldn't explain it without them, really, it wouldn't make sense. We didn't know exactly what to tell her, but we needed all of us to make it work.

It didn't take the girls long to get here. They were here less than fifteen minutes after I sent the text. All three girls came in the door. Bella hugged me.

When we released from our hug, Bella turned to Mary and Jessie, who were sitting anxiously and quietly on the couch next to one another. "Are you guys ok?" she asked. "Are you ready?"

Mary let out a slight chuckle. "No."

Jessie shrugged. "But we're going to have to be."

Bella nodded. Cleo spoke up. "So what are you planning on telling her?"

"Good question," I say, leaning up against a desk. Bella took a seat on the chair. Cleo and Rikki sit on stools in the kitchen. Cleo's arms are crossed while she talks. "We don't know."

"Well that's quite a plan," Rikki says sarcastically. She rolls her eyes.

"Really?" I ask slightly irritated at her behavior. Now wasn't the time for her sarcastic attitude. "Do you have a better idea?"

Rikki puts her hands up in surrender. "Relax, Will."

I sigh. I know she's right, I need to relax. Stress won't do us any good in this situation. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little… nervous."

"It's ok, Will," Mary reassures me. "It's going to be fine."

I feel a slight smile go across my face. I walk over to the couch and sit down next to her. She looks up at me. I brush a blond hair away from her face. "I know."

Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. My heart speeds up. I stand up.

"I'll get it…"

…

**Anna**

I walk up to Mary's door and knock. I don't know why she invited me here, but I think I have a pretty good idea. I gulp.

Will answers the door. "Come in," he says. Then he walks away. I'm hesitant to go in, but after pausing a few seconds, I walk in.

I expect it just to be Mary and her brother there, but I can't be further from wrong. When I go in, I see Mary and Jessie sitting on here couch, their heads turned to me. Will is leaning up against a desk, and the three other girls that I saw from Mako Island are there too. My stomach drops. Now I _know _what this is about.

"Uh… what's going on?" I ask nervously, still standing in the doorway.

Jessie looks determined. "We need to talk."

"A-about what?" I ask. As if I don't already know.

Mary gives a quick nod. "I think you know." She's right. I do.

I walk in and take a seat in an empty chair. I can nearly feel my hands shaking, but I'm trying to keep my composure and keep my nervousness under wraps.

"So… uh…" I try to start because it looks like no one else will. I'd rather just get it all over with.

Mary takes it. "This morning… your reaction. What was up with that?"

"Um… what do you mean?" I ask. I know what she means, but I don't want to say it or admit it. They weren't expecting my reaction to be so cool and rational. It shouldn't have been. And it wouldn't have been.

"You were really calm about it. And after your freak out at the Mako…" Mary keeps going. I feel myself blush. "That doesn't happen. There was no way you could have been that rational about it after the way you reacted initially. So what's going on?"

I sigh. I know I have to concede, otherwise we won't get anywhere. I look up at Will. "It was Will," I say quietly.

Will looks confused. "Me?" he aks. "What did I di?" His face is a mix of confusion and disbelief. I guess he really doesn't get it.

"Do you remember what you told me before we left Mako Island?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "Yeah, I do. But what does that have to do with it?"

"You told me that it wasn't about the old trust that we had to get them to trust me with their secret. I had to _show _I was trustworthy. And that's what I was trying to do." I turn back to Mary and Jessie. They both look confused, so I explained. "I was trying to show you guys I was trustworthy and you could trust me by stayking calm. That way you'd know I could handle it." I say the last part quietly.

Realization dawns on their faces. They look to one another. Small smiles grow on their faces. They turn back to me. "If you really went to the trouble not to freak out again, I think that means we can trust you," says Jessie.

I feel myself smile back at them. "Really?" I ask in disbelief.

Mary nods. "Really."

Suddenly, without thinking, I throw my arms around my best friends' necks. Over their shoulders, I could see will smiling. We release from our hug.

"In that case," I say to them. "You have some explaining to do."

…

**Jessie **

"In that case," Anna says. "You have some explaining to do."

I nod regretfully almost. "Yeah," I say. "We probably do…"

She goes straight in to it. "What's going on?"

Mary shrugs. "We're mermaids?" she tries.

Anna gives her a 'really?' face. "Yeah, no duh," she says. I laugh. She still is definitely Anna.

"It's a long story…" I say.

Anna raises her eyebrows. "I've got time," she says.

I cock my head. "Ok then," I tell her. I start in to it. "Remember that day when we went to Mako Island?"

"Yeah," she confirms.

"Remember all of the weird things that happened there?" I ask. Like she wouldn't remember.

She stares off, as if remembering it now. "Yes," she says. She shakes her gaze back to me.

"Well, whatever happened that night.." I say delicately. My voice is quiet. "Whatever happened to Mary and I while we were in that pool… It turned us in to mermaids."

She shakes her head in disbelief. "How?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," Will answers.

I look to Mary to see if she wants to help, but she shakes her head. I can tell she doesn't want to really explain this, probably after already having to with Will. She doesn't want to revisit it, so I go on to explain the basics to Anna. "When we get wet, ten seconds later, we turn in to mermaids. We can swim really fast and hold our breath for a long time." I try to decide whether I want to hold out on the next part. I decide not to, it's futile at this point. "We also have different powers."

Anna's eyes widen. "You have powers?" she asks unbelievingly. "What kind of powers?"

I shrug. "We can boil, shape, freeze, and gel-ify water."

"Wow," she says breathlessly. "That's so cool." We're all silent for a moment, but then she begins to ask more questions. "Why were you guys at Mako Island again?"

"We were trying to find out more about us being mermaids," I begin. "We were trying out things with the crystals. Our changes have to do with those crystals, the lunar cycle, and the reaction it all gives in the moon pool. That's what changed us in to mermaids, and that's what we were trying to find out more about."

Anna looks around the room at the other three girls. I realize they've been silent this entire time. "What about them?" she asks, pointing to the other girls. "Why were they there?"

I shoot looks at all of them and Will. I almost make up an excuse, but from the look Will gives me, I know I have to tell the truth. "They're mermaids too."

"Really?" she asks. She turns to the other girls and looks them up and down. I can tell she still can't believe it.

I nod. "Yeah," I tell her. "But in a completely different way than we are." She looks confused. I don't feel like explaining more than I have to. "That's another long story," I say, saving myself from explaining more.

"Wow," Anna says breathlessly again. "I can't believe this."

I chuckle. "Yeah," I say. "Neither can we."

…

**Mary **

After Jessie finishes explaining our mermaid life-story to Anna, we're all quiet for a minute, shooting each other glances and observing Anna. She looks like she's thinking. A lot.

I finally decide I need to speak up. "Anna," I say. She looks to me and I look at her seriously. "We need to know we can trust you with this. No one can ever know."

She nods understandingly. "I know. I get it, too," she says. Her voice gets quiet. "You're my friends. I would never betray you like that. Ever." I can tell in her voice that she's being sincere.

I pull her in to a hug. "Thank you," I say, my voice muffled by my friend's shoulder.

She hugs back and Jessie joins in "You're welcome."

We all pull apart. I look to Will and the other girls. They're all smiling.

I hear a ring. I see that it's Anna's phone. She opens it and reads a message. She looks at us regretfully. "I'm sorry, but I have to go home. My mom wants me back before dark."

"That's ok," I say. I stand up. "I'll walk you out the door."

Jessie stands too. "Me too."

We walk Anna out the door. Before she goes she turns to us. "Thank you," she says. "For telling me." She looks solemn. "I promise you can trust me."

I nod. "We know we can," I tell her with all sincerity. We all give each other one last hug before she goes out.

I go back inside, confident in the fact that we don't have to keep our secret from her anymore and even more confident knowing she can keep it. By the look on Jessie's face, I know she's thinking the same thing.

When we get back inI notice everyone is smiling at us. Rikki, surprisingly enough, speaks first.

"God job, you guys," she says.

"You handled it really well and it went really well," comments Cleo.

"I'm proud of you guys," says Bella. I can tell she really is.

Will walks over to me. "And so am I," he says solemnly. He pulls me in to a tight hug. He's taller than me, my face is pressed up against his shoulder, but I don't mind. I just hug him back. He strokes my hair. "I really am." He almost whispers.

I smile wide, even though he can't see it. "Thank you," I say, my already quiet voice muffled by Will's shoulder. He finally releases me.

Everyone seems glad and satisfied. "It worked out fine," Jessie says. She's not trying to be smart or show anyone up. It's just a general statement of our reassurance. We all nod silently in agreement.

"Now all that's left to do is figure it all out," Will says.

I shake my head and give a sad smile. "No."

Will looks confused. "Why not?"

"Because, Will," I say. "Some things just aren't meant to be understood. They're just meant to be accepted."

…

**Well, faithful readers, this seems to be the end. **

**I just want to thank you (my faithful readers) for your continuous support of me and my story. All of you who favorited and left those wonderful reviews and just in general, came back to read with every chapter I put up. It all means the world to me. I'm so blessed, you guys, blessed beyond belief. I can't thank you enough. So here it is, everyone.**

**THANK YOU! :D **

**And, for future stories, happy reading! I hope with the stories you put up yourself you guys get amazing readers like the ones that I was blessed with. Thank you guys! Thank you guys so, so much! :D**

**-JNZ, Colemet**


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